Tap your AirPods Pro case to check if it’s charged

The AirPods Pro come in a Qi-enabled wireless charging case, which means you can just drop it onto a charging mat, grab them a while later, and everything is topped up and ready to go. But the LED indicator on the case blinks off soon after you start charging. What’s up? How do you find out if your AirPods are full yet?

How to check the charging status of your AirPods Pro

There are two ways to check the charging status of your AirPods Pro. One is to use your connected iPhone or iPad, and the other is to check using the LED on the AirPods case itself.

Check AirPods Pro battery levels from the iPhone.Photo: Apple

If you open up your AirPods Pro case (with both earbuds inside) when it’s near your iPhone or iPad, a panel will pop up on the device’s screen. It shows the charge levels of the AirPods Pro case, and of both the AirPods inside. You’ve almost certainly seen this already.

The other way to check battery level from the iPhone is to use the Battery Widget in the Today View. Just swipe right when on the home screen, and take a look at the widget. If the battery widget isn’t in your Today View, then scroll to the bottom, tap edit, and add it from the list by tapping the green + button.

How to check AirPods Pro battery level using the case LED

And now, to the mystery-solving section of this post. When you drop your AirPods onto the charging mat, the case’s LED lights up for eight seconds, then blinks out. How do you make it light up? Do you really have to pick it up and drop it again?

Nope. You can just tap the AirPods Pro case, and the LED will light up. This only seems to work when the case is on a Qi charging mat. If it’s plugged into a Lightning cable, this trick doesn’t work. A green LED means that the case and AirPods (if they’re inside) are charged to at least 80%.

If they fit your ears, AirPods Pro are just an amazing gadget — easily one of the best things Apple has made in the last few years. And this neat tap-to-show-battery-levels feature shows that Apple still pays plenty of attention to the details.